We propose to investigate the relationship between adolescent cigarette smoking and the social communication functions of cigarette smoking. We propose a cross-sectional survey of 1600 Los Angeles seventh through twelfth graders during the first year and two annual follow-up surveys of the original 800 seventh and tenth graders in the second and third years of a three year research program. The survey instrument is designed to collect information on the incidence of adolescents' use of cigarettes, on their mastery of particular social skills (i.e., social dominance, social fluency, and strength of expressed peer solidarity), on their beliefs about the impact of smoking on these skills, on their need for affiliation and on the value they place on personal independence relative to the value they place on academic achievement. We expect to show that adolescents' relative mastery of social communication skills, their values, their affiliative tendency and their beliefs about the psychosocial benefits of smoking are predictive of their decision to smoke.